From A Line
by HalcyonFrost
Summary: Collected ficlets from prompts I filled on Tumblr. All chapters unrelated unless noted otherwise, different AUs, canon divergent, and pretty much anything else that comes to mind. Mostly Frostiron for now, may contain some others, any specific tags/warnings will be in each chapter's summary.
1. Serve The Time of Your Life

**For usedupshiver's prompt of a "meeting in prison AU". It was kind of (REALLY) hard to resist. Originally posted on my Tumblr ( ).**

**Mentions of blood, violence, murders, and general not caring about committing said crimes. Nothing graphic.**

* * *

Of all the things that didn't go according to how Tony planned it, getting himself landed in prison was number four on the growing list of fuck ups. Not disabling the cameras before sneaking into his god father's place and shooting Obie where he slept? That was number two on the list.

On the upside, after his second year, he was transferred to another high security prison and set up in a sweet semi-private cell in B block, where "semi-private" actually translates to "I've got this cell to myself because my cellmate got thrown into solitary for shanking a giant in the face the day I got here" but that's a mouthful to say. The guards pointed Loki out as Tony's cellmate, making their first unofficial meeting mostly Tony watching as some tall as fuck asshole with someone else's blood matting his inky black hair and soaking his clothes getting hauled away, laughing a croaking caw of delight while his "victim" was lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the cell block. "Victim" also being a shortened version of something much more complicated, Tony is immediately sure.

Loki spent three days in solitary and got out just as Tony was put in. Also not Tony's fault when that wannabe king of the block kid seemed so smug about knowing who Tony was, but didn't seem to remember "weapons designer" being a big part of Tony's life outside. One quick castration later, and the kid was going to remember. Tony gets out of solitary, Loki is put back in again, the cycle continued back to the start, and Tony starts to wonder if he's going to have his own cell for his entire sentence here. The idea isn't unappealing, honestly.

Two weeks in, the question is answered in the form of a guy - and let's be honest, even Tony, the highly reputed womanizer, isn't immune to how easy on the eyes this guy is - slumping onto the bench across from Tony in the cafeteria.

"So you're my illusive cell mate." Loki drawls, gemstone green eyes pinning Tony to his side of the table. He looks just as good clean as he did covered in blood.

"Damn, I was hoping I'd get my own room for a little while longer."

"There's time in the day yet to start another fight." Loki's eyes flickered with morbid hope, and the edge of his mouth turned up slightly. One might _almost_ call it a smile.

"So you can have my room? Thanks, but I'll save myself the trouble for now." Tony starts picking at his food again and swears he hears a soft laugh when he isn't looking.

"I get top bunk." Loki states after a second.

"Then you've been sleeping in my bed because I get top bunk."

"Then I suppose we'll have to share." Tony glances up just in time to see Loki looking him up and down. "You're compact enough for us both to fit. I thought you'd be taller, honestly."

Years of being called short, Tony doesn't so much as flinch at the remark. "This isn't going to devolve into a 'who's the bitch now' argument, is it? Solitary is worth it if I get to make you a eunuch first."

Loki laughs again, while Tony is watching, but it's still unbelievable. This was the guy he'd heard was such a jerk? Tony's pretty perceptive, if he can say so of himself, and Loki isn't reading how the other inmates have been leading Tony to believe.

"That won't be necessary." The other smiles, more amusement now and less malice. "Life imprisonment is dull enough, I'd rather not spend it having the same argument."

"Yeah, it'd be too much like trial again."

"I heard yours was a feat for the papers."

"Apparently juries don't fall for the 'he started it first' self defense argument after killing a liar and a traitor, sparkling father figure though he was in the public eye." _Apparently_ it was "inhuman" to shoot someone twice in the chest and again in the face and "authorities should have been notified upon discovery of Obadiah involvement in Tony's assassination attempt" and "vigilantism wasn't tolerated in civil society" and prosecuting attorneys didn't like it when you laughed in their faces and called their society uncivil. So Tony got charged with first degree murder and life imprisonment without parole.

Tony nods to Loki. "Heard your body count was impressive." As were the petty misdemeanors and various felonies he racked up first. Pleading insanity and coercion only lowered Loki's sentence enough that he could bail himself out and add on a number of murder charges.

"I'm not fond of traitors myself. They deserved every second of agony from the first cut to the last." The look on Loki's face isn't unfamiliar - Tony saw it that first day too. And he saw it on his own reflection every time he thought of killing Obadiah. Anyone else would call it sadistic delight, but Tony knew better. It was _vindication_. And who were the victims in Tony and Loki's crimes? By the time they were done, everyone was. From first to last.

"That I do believe."

Loki smiles a bit more genuinely. "I do think we're going to enjoy our time together, Mr. Stark."

Tony finds himself matching the grin as his brain conjures up all the kinds of mischief he can see calling to him from the 6'2" god sitting across from him. There could be worse people to spend a lifetime with. "Please, it's Tony."

Loki extends his hand over their trays of food. "Loki, then."

His skin is warm and long fingers clasp around the edges of Tony's palm. "Nice to meet you, Loki."


	2. Breaking Rules

**AN: For echosiriusrumme's prompt of "prostitute/client AU" from a prompt meme with a specification of Tony as the prostitute because she knows what I like. Originally posted on my Tumblr.**

**Contains no explicit sexy times (for now), but does heavily allude to it in past tense. And a bit of feels in present happenings. Very short ficlet. The AO3 version (and my Tumblr) will have the eventual and smutty continuation, but guidelines prohibit posting explicit content, and I don't want to get in trouble. **

* * *

Exceptions to the rules were one thing, but hiring a prostitute for no other reason that said prostitute being ridiculously charming was another thing entirely.

Loki hadn't had too much to drink, he wasn't hard up for sex, he wasn't even looking for that sort of thing, but then Tony approached him and was warm, intelligent, and a joy to talk to on any subject that came up. He was also flirtatious on every level from subtle body language to discussing positions, and had Loki mentioned the head-turning hotness yet? Bright brown eyes, sun-kissed skin, lovely smile, the slightest gray shooting through brown hair at his temples and in his neatly trimmed beard… That was calculating into Loki's decision too.

Price wasn't a question - Tony mentioned it, and Loki agreed to terms. Tony asked to graduate from conversing at the club bar to taking a cab back to Loki's place, and Loki couldn't say yes fast enough. So he found out Tony's own rules of no kissing on the mouth (too intimate, Tony had said, and intimacy didn't factor in with paying for sex), condoms were not optional and put on by Tony himself to ensure it, and the sex? The sex was_ incredible_.

Loki's unspoken rules broken, and a sex worker in his bed for the seventh time in two months. Loki couldn't find it in himself to regret a second of it either.

"I charge more if you start getting sweet on me." Tony teased, still straddling Loki's lap with his head on Loki's shoulder. Their skin stuck together from drying sweat, but Tony accidentally discovered Loki's kink for it and hadn't given him a break since, not that Loki had any want to complain.

"Can I pay the overage in blowjobs?" Loki offered amicably, but didn't expect Tony's sharp inhale as he sat up straight and stared down at Loki with dilated pupils.

Tony's mouth opened for a moments then snapped shut wordlessly. And again. "You're not a typical client, you know."

"So I gathered." Tony's frown of offense at his own confusion is too much not to laugh at a little, but it only gets Loki a half-hearted glare. "I am sorry, but I don't think I've ever seen some one so upset and interested all at once."

"I'm trying to get more money out of you, and you're offering to blow me off?"

"Whatever will you do to stop my cruel-natured thoughts?"

Before Loki could stop chuckling, Tony leaned in and kissed Loki square on the lips, promptly stopping any laughter. It wasn't a quick peck either; it lingered closed-mouthed and innocently for a few short seconds, and when Tony drew back, he took a moment to open his eyes again and lock sights with Loki.

"I thought you didn't-"

"Shut up and kiss me again." Tony interrupted, a tiny smile at the corner of his lips.

And Loki hardly had the willpower to deny him.


	3. I Surrender

**Another fun prompt from usedupshiver: "hand holding" off a prompt list, and it took an unexpected turn with ****_all this fluff, good lord, what's happening_****. Originally posted on my Tumblr.**

**Not much in the way of warnings here, some vague alluding to violence and serious injury but nothing graphic. Also, there's kissing and some angst, but it ends happily.**

* * *

"Did anyone know about this?" Steve whispered to the two other Avengers gathered outside of Tony's room.

"I had been keeping an eye on them," Natasha claimed, "but this isn't what you're thinking, Cap. Loki isn't coming from a possessive lover stance; this is regret and remorse for a could-have-been lover. It's fear, not anger. I know the difference."

"Tony's lying there in a hospital bed with _Loki_ at his bedside, and I'm-" Steve glanced at the closed door again and sighed. "Of all the things I wasn't expecting today, I hadn't even_ considered_-"

"Why not?" Clint was reclined against the wall with Steve and Natasha standing on either side. "You didn't see it? Even before Loki switched sides for shits and giggles and revenge, he and Tony were always the ones bitching at each other. Insults and flirting and really impressive burns, and they still walked away with a smile every time."

"Tony does that with everyone." At least as far as Steve saw it, that was how Tony acted around anyone he even marginally didn't hate.

"Yeah, but it was just that next level with Loki. You didn't see the chemistry?"

"I hardly thought of it as chemistry."

"Now do you?"

The captain frowned. "Come on, let's go check on them."

The room was much the same as they left it twenty minutes earlier - Tony's condition wasn't changed, but he'd stabilized somewhat once the doctors induced a coma, citing it as a way to allow his body to heal. He was fine, all things considered.

But three hours ago, when they had to listen as Tony's comm cut off, when they had to dig him out of the wreckage after what was supposed to be a standard attack from a standard robotic opponent just like every other Thursday, and then…

Tony was a genius. There was no denying this. But he was one man building and upgrading suits when he could find the time while dozens of other beings were actively seeking and creating ways to break him down. The odds were never in his favor. It had only been a matter of time, but the thought is no consolation.

"Have you finished muttering about me yet?" Loki questioned scathingly without so much as looking away from his task. He perched on the scant six or seven inches of space left beside Tony in bed, Tony's left hand cradled in Loki's resting atop his thigh while Loki's other hand traced nervous and nonsensical designs around the IV line. "Or perhaps you're ready _to_ speak to me rather than_ of_ me."

"This isn't an intervention or a ploy to get you out." Natasha gathered her response the fastest. "Tony would want you here."

"He's unconscious. He wouldn't know if I wasn't."

"It's Tony. He'd know somehow."

Loki's hand paused for a moment before resuming with slower drawing and mused under his breath, almost too low for the others to hear: "Yes, he would, wouldn't he?" Then louder: "Then I'll not leave until he wakes."

"Might be a while." Clint noted a bit warily. "Even after they stop giving him the drugs to force it, it might be weeks."

"I have time."

"We all feel guilty that he got hurt on our watch." Steve said. "But he survived. And we won't make the same mistake twice."

"It only takes one time!" Loki snapped. For the first time since Loki stepped foot in the room, he looked away from Tony for the sole reason of glaring at Steve. "_One_ time, _one_ mistake, _one_ assumption that it's nothing, and it's _done_. All those hopes for 'some day' and 'later' all for naught because of one little _mistake_. I. Won't. Leave. So much as start to belittle this again, and you'll only have to do it once."

"You're not the only one that would lose him!"

"I've not been able to have him in the first place! Ever the waiting game, ever refusing to admit even the existence of possibility, ever those two steps too far away, that's what I've had. And losing that would still rip into me because I never even knew what I _could_ have had. You've had his friendship and his loyalty and his company. I've had distance. And still I have it. Waiting. Hoping. And knowing that anything good cannot not be had by me. So practice your guilt and remorse from your own distance, Captain, and let me again have only what I can steal."

"Clint, help Cap check in on Bruce and Thor, will you? They should be getting off with Fury by now, and I'm sure they'll want to know how Tony's doing."

"Yeah, let's go get the others." Clint put a hand to Steve's bicep and coaxed him towards the doorway. "We'll be back in a few, once the AC kicks in." Waving his free hand abstractly through the hot air between Steve and Loki, Clint manhandled the captain back into the hall and in the direction of the elevators.

"Tell me you're not on his side." Steve groused incredulously, but Clint only held his palms out in surrender.

"I'm on Tony's side right now, and let me tell you: comatose patients are never as out of it as you think. I'm not going to be the one he wakes up and gets pissed at for arguing over his hospital bed. And if you want to escape his not-so-subtle ways of getting back, you don't want to be one of those poor bastards either. Play nice, think on it, and argue with Loki later when you have a cooler head."

**xXx**

The problem ended up being that Loki didn't leave Tony's side. When Loki was awake, he sat on the bed; when Loki was asleep, he pulled the chair over close and slept with one hand still holding Tony's. He never left, he only acknowledged the others when they spoke directly to them, and while he was getting to be on fair terms with most everyone, Sam included, shockingly enough, Loki still openly treated Steve with contempt. It wasn't a huge surprise why either. Steve's multiple attempts to mend some fences ultimately ended worse than before he tried, since Loki knew every button to push that grated at Steve's patience. He finally stopped bothering, and dealt with not speaking to Loki directly.

Two weeks passed, and Tony was breathing on his own again, but still not awake. He was taken off the drugs that held him under, but he hadn't pulled himself out. Days piled on, his wounds healed, his stitching was removed, and he made great progress. And still he stayed under. And still Loki stayed.

The day Natasha came in and found Loki not there was the day that Tony woke up a few hours later, when he promptly started cursing using robots for nefarious schemes. Everyone that came through after had to endure that speech, but no one seemed to mind until the thirty minute mark. Loki didn't show up in front of the Avengers again in the following few days that Tony was kept for observation, and not for Tony not wanting him there either. He asked every couple of hours, only to get clueless answers.

The first thing Tony did when he got back to his own penthouse was take a long shower. They all sat down for a team meal afterwards - also minus Loki - that lasted a couple more hours before everyone went off to their own business, and Tony could could be alone again.

He'd barely stepped behind the bar when he felt a familiar prickle along the back of his neck. "No need to hide." He spoke to the room at large as he fished a bottle of water from the fridge. "Kind of silly at this point. Held my hand for however long I was out of it, then kept sneaking back in whenever I was sleeping the past few days."

"If you were sleeping as you should have been, you wouldn't have remembered. Loki accused as he stepped into view from the hallway shadows. "I was spoiled by your silence, obviously."

"Well, you weren't being all that stealthy, waiting until I was just waking up before you would apparate away. Of course I remember shaking hands holding mine, weight on the mattress… You knew you wouldn't get away clean."

Loki tilted his head in a half shrug. "Perhaps not."

"Or you were too distracted to be at your top level of sneakiness."

Loki was closing the distance slowly, unblinking as he stared back. "And what could be driving me to such distraction?"

"Me, of course."

He smiled slightly. "Of course. Well then, as I've been caught red-handed now, what's to be done of it?"

There's less than a foot of space between them, but all of the hesitation from before has vanished. Fuck lingering looks that broke as soon as they noticed each other watching, and no more bothering with "some day" or "what if" or "soon" when there was a perfectly good "now" going on as soon as they stopped stepping around it. Well, it was time to step up.

"I have some ideas to start." Tony reached for Loki's hand, tugged at the tips first until Loki followed and faced his palm towards Tony. It was testing at first, resting the calloused but plump muscles where wrist became palm together, thumbs touching, and Tony's fingers slightly curled under Loki's long digits. Tony stretched and slid rough fingers between Loki's finally slotting them together, the wells of their palms just off enough in size to fit like a puzzle. When Tony glanced away from the sight, it took Loki a moment longer to do the same, his face peaceful and hopeful like Tony had never seen before.

"How's this for a start?" Tony said, quieter than he'd imagined it would come out.

"Not enough." Loki, by comparison, rasped out the words.

Tony stood up as Loki leaned down, Loki's free hand moving to touch Tony's cheek just as their lips brushed. The kiss was sweet and short, followed by one longer and warmer that lasted and lasted. His head was pleasantly empty save for one thought, and as the kiss parted naturally, Tony set to making it known. He didn't release Loki's hand for a second, instead adjusting the hold incrementally to lead Loki away from the bar. "Come here."

"Where?" Loki asked but followed without waiting for the answer.

Tony grinned and paused for another soft peck to Loki's lips. "My room." He shrugged with a bit more licentiousness in his leer. "But an argument could be made to call it 'ours' after, if you'd like."


	4. What You Want But Not What You Can Have

**For usedupshiver's prompt of "Have you ever wanted to hate someone?" off of a prompt meme. Originally posted on my tumblr.**

**Contain mentions of violence, a few emotionally-numbed Avengers, and (my favorite) perceptive!Clint running the show.**

* * *

"Say that again."

It wasn't often that Clint looked so angry, least of all directed at Steve, but Steve just had to ask _that_ while staring so pointedly at the surveillance feed being projected over the conference table, and he kind of had that reaction coming.

"What kind of question is that? About_ him_?"

Steve finally looked from the feed to make eye contact with Clint, but the supersoldier's face was uncharacteristically blank and cold. "You didn't answer the question. Have you ever wanted to hate someone?"

"I hate plenty of assholes that deserve it." Clint glanced fleetingly to SHIELD's latest prisoner laid out on his cot with one arm over his face to block out the light around him in the bowels of an underground facility. "_He_ doesn't. And you don't hate him."

"I'm trying. God knows I want to, but I can't. I don't feel like I can help him either though."

"We know you like redemption stories," Natasha didn't bother pitching her voice to calm when it wouldn't do a thing to assuage Clint's rage, "but not everyone wants to be saved."

"I'm no stranger to murder for the greater good. I've dealt enough of it myself to know its necessity as much as its overuse. But this? Everyone is okay with this? There are steps too far, Natasha, and this is one of many that we're stepping on."

"He's stepped too far too." Bruce won't even look at the camera feed, fidgeting with his glasses instead. "If he doesn't want to come back, then that's his choice. And reacting accordingly is our choice."

"I should have called Rhodes or Wilson for this." Clint spat. "I can't believe you. All of you. How do you get this cold?" He straightened and scoffed with a disgusted curl of his lips. "We all know it would be different if Tony were up here with us."

Steve's fist made the whole table shake. "Well, he's not! And we have to learn to deal without." He pushed away from the group and left the room in a strop, silence descending on the remaining three Avengers.

_"How's the arm?"_ Fury asked as he entered the cell off-screen of the feed.

"Extremely painful, thanks." The prisoner slowly pulled himself up to sitting. His arm was in a cast from wrist to forearm and cradled in his lap, one leg gingerly bent in front of him on the thin mattress and various bruises and cuts across his face to match the black eye on one side. "That does tend to happen when you break and reset a person's arm without any pain meds though."

"We would've hated to waste them."

Tony smiled only slightly, anything else would have been far more painful in his current condition. "All this to get me in your super special lead-lined cell so I can be sure to know just how bad I've been. By the way, what _am_ I charged with, Nick? 'Cause all I remember doing this morning was trying to get a coffee and a scone for my boyfriend and I."

"Your 'boyfriend' happens to be a demigod of chaos, and he's staying in your Malibu residence. You're harboring a known fugitive."

"Then I get a lawyer now that there are official charges."

"You'll be appointed one soon."

Tony's eyes narrowed as his chin tucked with an incredulous tilt. "Will I? Before or after you've dealt with my body?" He asked lightly then laughed at Fury's answer of silence. "Do I get the firing squad, or will this just be execution style? Are they already drawing straws for whose bullet has my name on it?"

"Maybe you shouldn't have put yourself in a position to warrant their hate." Fury suggested, but Tony scoffed over him loudly.

"Guilty by association," he muttered bitterly, "guilty until proven innocent, only I'm not getting a chance to prove innocence because SHIELD has already judged and sentenced me a traitor."

"That happens when you elope with a criminal. It makes you an accessory to his crimes."

"We left peacefully! And Loki hasn't done anything more than petty mischief on this world in more than a year!"

"That doesn't erase what he's already done." Fury spoke over Tony, but he didn't move any closer. There was no point trying to intimidate at this point.

"He could leave the planet, never bother you again, and still you'd swear to hunt him down like a dog."

"You don't get to skip out on payment, Stark."

"Then charge me with what you'd like, deal my death sentence, bury me in an unmarked grave, and be done with it. Let the world think I've gone missing again. My properties already have measures in place in case of my death, so I've got all my shit in order. What's death matter to me now? But Loki? You think before was bad, you'll love what will happen when he finds out what you've done to me."

"I never expected his good streak to last long anyway."

"Like kicking a tiger and then saying it you knew it would roar." Laying back onto his cot, Tony closed his eyes and waved Fury off with his unbroken arm. "Come back and wake me when it's time to kill me."

"No last requests?"

"What's the point of asking for friends who won't come? Piss off already, Nick."

The creak of the cell door told of Fury's departure, and Tony didn't do anything more than settle in bed without a word.

"We have to be missing something." Clint couldn't stop watching and trying to find clues he wasn't seeing.

"Maybe what you're missing is that there isn't anything else." Natasha said as she and Bruce both stood to leave. "Staring at a screen won't change a thing."

"I'll just have to see."

"You don't want to watch what's coming."

"Then I'll have to stop it from coming, won't I?"

She sighed and nodded to Bruce. "We'll see you back at the tower later."

"Much later."

Left alone to decipher the mystery, Clint had to admit that current methods wouldn't crack it. Tony didn't do stupid moves like getting caught, not without a reason behind them. Only he wasn't explaining a thing.

On screen, Tony raised his head towards the door and moved as if to sit up, but the video flickered for a few seconds, and when it cleared, he was laying down again.

_Gotcha._

Clint had to shove past a lot of confused agents as he raced to get to the sublevel, but he wasn't going to risk missing them, not when it would probably be his last chance to see Tony. He had to know the reason before it was too late to ask.

The guard outside of Tony's cell was unconscious, and the voices inside made it easy to sneak close enough to make out words.

"-already moved everything. There's nothing left for SHIELD to take." That was a familiar voice Clint wasn't surprised to hear. "Did you speak with them?"

"I _couldn't_." Tony's voice was strained. "_They_ wouldn't. Broken arm and cracked ribs all for nothing. Guess I made 'em mad."

"I said it would be a risk."

"Yeah, yeah, and I took it anyway. Let's just go before someone with a gun shows up, okay?"

Clint stepped into the doorway just as Loki was helping Tony to his feet carefully, the pain of movement evident on Tony's contorted expression. Both men froze at the sight of the agent, the long silence that followed tense enough to shatter.

"I was watching the camera." Clint said by way of explanation.

Tony's face fell. "No one else?"

"I'm sorry, Tony."

He shrugged, but his jaw was clenched and his hand clenched into a fist where it was slung over Loki's shoulder. "Expected but hoped for the opposite. My mistake."

"Fury wouldn't let us notify anyone else. Rhodes would have-"

"I know. That's why he's getting a postcard later."

"Don't I get one?"

Tony looked like he was searching for the sarcasm, but there was none to be found. "Thought you'd rather hate me."

"I just want to know why."

His brow furrowed in confusion as he glanced to Loki and back, unable to find the words.

"Not why him," Clint clarified, "kind of figured that out on my own a while again. I meant why set yourself up today?"

Tony deflated even more. "Wanted to explain. Can't if no one's listening."

"I'm more interested in why _you_ are." Loki cut in, and Clint noticed the protective curl of Loki's fingers at Tony's waist.

"Because it's kind of hard to stop yourself from falling, even when you know you're not supposed to. I was lucky enough to bring her over. You didn't have that luxury."

"Fuck postcards, you're getting alien souvenirs, you secretly genius bastard." It had to hurt for Tony to laugh, but he looked too relieved to care. "Thank you."

"Thank me by leaving before they find out the feeds are altered."

Loki gave a curt head bow, and Tony smiled despite split and swollen lips, but Clint couldn't fault that sight for being his last view of either man for a long time. Better that than too many bodies to count after Loki was through with his revenge. No one else was going to be happy, but Clint would apparently be too busy with alien artefacts to get too bogged down by them.

**EN: I need more Tony &amp; Clint bromancing in fics. More smart-on-the-uptake, "of course the thing happened, you didn't notice it?" Clint in fics. BASICALLY PERCEPTIVE!CLINT = CANON!CLINT = HOW CLINT SHOULD BE IN FICS ALL THE TIME.**


	5. Now And Then

**Usedupshiver, always the first one to the punch when I reblog prompt memes~ She requested 46 ("Hey, have you seen the...? Oh.") and 49 ("Well, this is awkward...") off a prompt meme on my tumblr, and c'mon I am never going to say no to that. MORE AWKWARD SCENES, YISS. I started writing another more humorously awkward one, but it wasn't coming out right, so I had to scrap it. I scrap a lot of first drafts on these things.**

**Chapter warnings are mild with only strong language and some mentions of past internalized homophobia for this one.**

* * *

She had been _right there_ just a few seconds ago, Tony was sure. All he did was turn to order another drink from the bar, and when he looked back, she was gone. Shame too as he was enjoying the discussion of whether or whether not portals were possible and where they would lead to. Three years ago, Tony would have been more focused on getting her elsewhere and undressed, but this wasn't just some girl hanging around waiting to be picked up, she was a massively underrated astrophysicist with outlandish but brilliant ideas, if Tony was connecting the right names together. Forget sleeping with her, Tony wanted to pick her brain for her opinions on some of the strange goings on lately.

And she just had to go and disappear right when the conversation was getting fascinating!

Tony flagged down the nearest party patron he laid eyes on and grabbed the guy's shoulder. "Hey, have you seen a- oh." And wasn't this just Tony's luck tonight. Best not to ask _him_ where the petite Dr. Jane had run off to. On the other hand, they'd split up four years ago, so fuck it. "Well, this is awkward, but have you seen a really frazzled scientist around?" Not that there weren't dozens here tonight; it was a science conference, after all, but he plowed on. "'Bout yea high, kind of cute, big smile, aggressively passionate about Einstein-Rosen bridges? Seriously, she's really hard to miss."

Loki looked less than impressed. "If you were with Dr. Foster, then I'm sure my brother managed to spot you together and whisked her off to safety the first chance he got. He is quite protective of his fiancé."

"Wha? What's wrong with me? You ever tell him what we got up to?"

Loki's spine stiffened. "Of course not." He snatched a champagne glass from a passing tray and resolutely didn't look at Tony as he continued: "And I'll never tell him about us because it was as much of a mistake then as it will ever be."

"That's just uncalled for." The clenching that Loki's words caused in Tony's chest was ignored.

"You were the one determined to keep our relationship a secret, not me. If it's rude to remind of that, then so be it."

All Tony wanted then was to crawl back to the bar and drink until he could remember when those eyes were bright with happiness instead of avoiding his gaze completely as they were now. He'd fucked it up once already though, and leaving now wasn't going to heal any still open wounds from all that time ago. "I'm sorry."

The apology was shocking enough to draw Loki's widened eyes back to Tony. "Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry. For a lot. I shouldn't have kept you in the dark about... well, in the dark in more ways than one. It was bullshit, but I was a scared idiot with a father obsessed about legacy and finding out his son liked guys too... it wasn't something I was ready for. I shouldn't have forced you to pretend though. And I know it hurt you, but I didn't want to lose you either."

"Yet you still did."

"Yet I did. And I can't change that or blame you considering your decision was entirely warranted, but I can fix the present, if you'll let me."

Loki stared him down for uncomfortably long seconds. "I'm not ready for that." Tony's chest tightened uncomfortably again. "But I'll take a stiffer drink. And you can fill the seat beside me at the bar. We'll see what happens after when we get to that."

And all at once, Tony felt a weight lift. "I can do that."

"And Tony?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you. For apologizing. It's not enough, but I needed to hear it anyway."

"I know. I needed to say it too."

Loki led the way to the bar, and Tony fell in beside him naturally, automatically adjusting his gait to match Loki's. "You're not forgiven yet."

As if the point needed driving home. "I'd be a whole 'nother level of fool to even hope for it already. This is talking, Loki. Catching up." He shrugged a little. "I'm not even getting my hopes up for acquaintances just yet, if I'm honest. Lucky would be getting your number."

"We'll see how things go. If you're buying the drinks."

And there was the Loki Tony knew. Reality punch or not, Tony couldn't refuse the tiny niggling hope that even if the Loki he knew was mostly gone and grown into someone new, maybe Tony could this new Loki's smile again. He could do with a more pleasant last memory.


	6. Falling Into You

**tonystarkfucksaround asked for 38 ("You fainted... straight into my arms. You know, if you wanted my attention, you didn't have to go to such extremes.") and Frostiron from a prompt meme, and it was so much fucking fun. You all are spoiling me with these awkward scene prompts, and I love it. **

**Chapters warnings mild again with only strong language.**

* * *

Maybe he went a little too long without sleeping or eating, and maybe he should have thought ahead as to how that could all catch up to him at just the wrong time, but frankly, Fury calling the Avengers in to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ to find Thor back with a not-dead Loki, who suddenly wanted to help them prepare for some big bad coming to earth? That was a surprise that even the best clairvoyant would have called unlikely. So there might have been some arguing after that, and Tony _might_ have gotten in Loki's face in a bit. Surely that spacey feeling that filled his head had just been a new level of anger, but then the blurred vision took over, and next thing Tony remembered, he was opening his eyes, and everyone was kneeling around him staring. And when had he laid down on the floor?

"What just happened?" Trying to sit back up sent a whole new wave of dizziness to claw through his mind.

"Easy, Tony, don't try to move too much." Bruce - was it Bruce? - soothed while trying to make Tony stay down.

Naturally, Tony ignored the gesture and got himself vaguely upright again. "I repeat: what the fuck happened?"

"You fainted."

Tony pivoted to find Loki kneeling to the side of where Tony's head had been. That grin never meant good things.

"Straight into my arms." Loki continued and visibly held back a laugh. "You know if you wanted my attention, you don't have to go to such extremes."

_Fuck._

"I want the exact opposite of your attention." Tony pulled his knees closer as he gathered his equilibrium for an attempt to stand. Several hands reached out to help, and he batted away most of them before settling on the one that seemed the sturdiest support. Unfortunately, it was after he was on his feet again that he realized it was Loki's hand. That grin had eased into softer smile of amusement at Tony's lot, and it rankled Tony no less than the Cheshire Cat leering.

Weakly pushing it away, Tony wavered on his own a bit but didn't black out again. "Great. Thanks. Now I'm going home and forget this ever happened. Including the part where you're alive."

"If wishes were horses, we'd all be feasting." Loki shook his head with huff of laughter. "It's silly to feign, Mr. Stark, at least allow someone to help you back safely."

"I don't fucking need it." A second attempt to step away nearly had Tony falling over again, but as with the first time, Loki caught and steadied the belligerent inventor. It felt like some awkward, modern day rendition of Disney, with Tony as one of the dainty princesses and Loki as a messed up prince. This entire day needed to be erased from existence and restarted.

"It appears your body disagrees." Loki let go after Tony started digging his fingernails into Loki's hands. "Set yourself up for injury then. Won't that teach me when you kill yourself with your own bullheadness?"

"Why are you even back, Loki? What do you want? Is this some backwards ploy at redemption?"

If the smile was disconcerting, it was nothing compared to when Loki threw his head back with raucous laughter, rough as a crow's caw and just as grating along Tony's senses.

"_Redemption_?" He barked and laughed again. "And to whom would I redeem myself to? Who would believe it? I have my own code, my own path, my own self, and I'll heed that alone. I'm only here to spare Midgard from the latest creature set on destroying it. My intentions for you are to keep you alive to better fight The Titan. Trust that, Iron Man."

Somehow, Tony could believe that more than any teary-eyed beg for redemption and second chances. Loki had an agenda, nothing more. "I'm not trusting you, that's for sure."

"You'd be a fool to. But you can trust what I want. Now will you allow me to return you to your home, or must I do so after you faint again?"

Half of the team behind Loki was glaring at the god, and the other half was giving Tony looks of warning. _"Don't trust him;"_ was implicitly implied,_"don't go back alone with him."_

"You're not teleporting me back."

"That truly would weaken you in your current state. I couldn't risk it. I thought we'd drive."

"You know how to drive?"

"I've traveled during my time as presumed dead. I learned a few things."

"This isn't a good idea-"

Tony didn't care which Avengers started to say it; he talked right over them. "Fine. Try anything hinky, I've got an omniscient bodyguard connected directly to my suits, so watch your ass."

"I'll mind my tongue." Loki touched a warm hand to between Tony's shoulder blades, but then hesitated and started to pull back. He could have let it go, but Tony instead leaned back the slight distance to reconnect and encourage it, only then realizing how tense the god was after he relaxed slightly. "Lead the way then. I catch you if you fall again."

"That's not minding your tongue."

The shrug was felt where Loki's elbow brushed fleetingly against Tony's back. "I lied. You shouldn't be surprised."


	7. Chapter 7

**whoviantalibah prompted Steve/Bucky and 21 ("We're in the middle of a thunderstorm and you want to stop and feel the rain?") for a prompt meme!**

**I openly admit that I've never actually written Steve/Bucky as of yet, through I've read a wide variety of characterizations in fan fictions. Therefore, I tragically had to re-watch the first Captain America movie to better inspire my own writing of them. If I had CA2, I would have been forced to watch that one too. So horrible when I have to attentively watch Marvel movies over again for reasons of wanting to.**

**Chapter warnings: insinuations of past torture, some depressive thoughts, and Bucky swearing like a fucking soldier.**

* * *

Where he had been wasn't important anymore, only that he was here now. Finding Bucky involved less finding and more him showing up on Steve's doorstep, hair cut short again, face clean shaven, and an expectant look in his eyes as shook the rain water from his leather jacket and opened with the succinct greeting/explanation of "I dealt with the last of Hydra's limbs."

Steve must have stared too long because the tired look broke for a bit of amusement as Bucky glanced into the apartment and then back to Steve. "So am I invited in?"

He'd spent months looking all over the place for Bucky, following any trace he could find, only to find out that he was always weeks behind Bucky's path of quiet but sure destruction. All to return to Brooklyn for more research on where the next lead would be, and Bucky came right to him. With this.

"You took on Hydra's dregs by yourself?"

Bucky looked confused at the question. "I knew them. They were my responsibility to deal with before they could repeat themselves."

The answer was less than appealing to Steve. "I could have helped."

Bucky snorted and pushed inside. "Yeah, I know exactly what you would have done to help - damn near get yourself killed again."

Closing the door, Steve turns an incredulous gaze to the familiar sight of his oldest friend sauntering in like he owned the place. But there was something off about it now. It wasn't easy or casual - Bucky took in every picture on the walls and shelves, the position and proximity of every window and every door, his gaze lingering on any item that could be wielded as a weapon. Steve could see through those icy blue eyes as all of that information was cataloged in the appropriate places in his head. And still he spun on his heel to face company the same way he always did, but he stood with his weight on the balls of his feet, always ready. He looked the same. He wasn't.

"Wouldn't have figured you to be this put together already." Steve said cautiously.

"Revenge is good for the soul. Without weekly wipes, I can cope. I can remember."

"Remember what?"

Bucky shrugged and made a contemplative face. "Pretty much everything with very few exceptions. Zola's serum was a bastardized version of Erskine's, but he got the basics. Next question for interrogation?"

"This isn't an interrogation."

"Believe me, Steve, I've been in enough of these to know - unofficial though it may be, you're interrogating."

Unable to figure how Bucky could be so calm right now, Steve wrote it off as good acting and gave up. "Then why did you come here?"

"Safe. Two of us, I don't think anyone would dare try it."

Right. Captain America and the Winter Soldier. Like no one had tried to take them out before. This Bucky, Steve couldn't predict anymore. "No one's going to find you here?"

"They had a tracker in my arm. It's been taken care of." So simple, like it was nothing. Safe, taken care of, God knew how he managed to get the tracker out himself though, which left Steve to question who Bucky threatened or trusted enough to do the job. Just considering the options made Steve's stomach turn.

"I was making dinner." He tried to shift the subject away from touchy discussions that he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer for yet. Bucky just nodded, gestured him to the kitchen, and stripped off his jacket before turning to survey Steve's living room again.

He grabbed a towel from the bathroom, told Bucky to stay away from the windows, don't go where anyone can see you, but all Steve had to do was step into the kitchen to find something salvageable to eat, and when Steve turned back around, Bucky was gone.

"Buck?"

"Not Bucky." Came from the open window, so quiet that Steve almost didn't hear it over the downpour outside. Being out in that was practically asking to get sick or injured, the thunder claps right on top of blinding flashes of lightning every ten or fifteen seconds to throw the ex-assassin's silhouette across Steve's living room floor. The storm was right over them, and Bucky was crouched outside on the fire escape, looking up at the sky.

"Alright." Steve leaned against the windowsill and watched from a safer place, waiting for a better opening to convince Bucky (he would always be Bucky) back inside. "Well, I don't know what they renamed you, so..."

"I'm not him either. Too much's changed. Seventy goddamn years of wars and ice and holes. I'm not anyone."

"Everyone changes. I changed. Am I not Steve anymore?"

The look Bucky gave over his shoulder at Steve was straight out of the 40s. "They gave you a big boy's hardware upgrade, sure, but in there?" He poked a metal finger at Steve's chest. "That's the same. Still the same reckless punk set on ridding the world of bullies, even if it kills ya in the process." Bucky looked back out. "They took Bucky out and stuffed someone else in his body. Then they fell, and I took their person out. Took themout. I'm some fucked up amalgamation of pieces that don't fit together."

"Listen, just come back-"

"I like it out here." Bucky interrupted.

"We're in the middle of a thunderstorm and you want to stop and feel the rain? You're soaking wet. Come in before you get pneumonia."

"I don't get sick anymore. Makes for a bad assassin if a little weather can take me out of the field."

The reminder still rankled Steve, what they made his friend into against his will, and Bucky just dealt with it. It made him want to return to his punching bag and drag Bucky with him, getting him doing something to let out anger, if he even had any at all. Bucky looked real, but he didn't feel it. Like a walking, talking shell of Steve's friend with all the looks and none of the depth that made Bucky his Bucky.

"Why did you come here?" Steve asked again because the first answer wasn't lining up.

Bucky looked back again confusedly. "I told you."

"I didn't believe that."

He frowned and shuffled his crouching position around to better face Steve. "Where else could I go and feel safe? All our friends from back when are dead, I don't trust anyone that's left in SHIELD, my family doesn't know I'm alive and I don't plan to tell them... Where else would I go, Stevie? Where else could I want to go?"

And honestly, even Steve didn't know the answer for that.

The fire escape screeched as Bucky shifted to lean through the window. His entire body language shifted, and there was something unnatural in the way he moved into Steve's space. "Did you want me broken, Rogers?"

"What? Of course not."

"Then why so suspicious that I'm fine?"

"Because you're not fine."

"Oh?" Bucky snorted and pulled himself the rest of the way inside. "Then what am I, if you know me so well?"

"Ready to snap. You came here for help."

"I came because I wanted to see you again! Jesus, Steve, is that so hard to understand?" It was the first sign of real emotion that Steve had seen allowed, and it was disappointment and anger. The soldier snatched the towel up from the table he'd tossed it on and started drying off his hair with rough movements. "You act like my motives are questionable, but you're the one that can't figure out what he wants."

"I want you to be okay!"

"Well, I'm not going to be okay! I've been on a worldwide massacre, cleaning out the people that spent seventy years ruining me over and over and making me a weapon they could point at others. Others like Howard."

And Steve had seen the article, but he hadn't connected... God, he'd never wanted to. "Were you the one that-"

"It was a car crash. Because I tried to find him, and he ran. That's what happens when you see a ghost. You know he had a kid?"

"Tony. The kid is Tony."

"And he's just as dangerously influential as his father. Hydra hated him for it. Tony's not like you; he never will be, but he's... good. Wants good."

That was... not what he had been expecting to hear. It was a very personal statement, not just grapevine assumptions. "You met him."

"Briefly. And his boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?"

"Trust me, Steve, you really don't want to know."

Pulling the towel down around his shoulder, he dropped his arms to his sides and then threw them out expectantly. "So tell me before I start to get comfortable - what do you want here?"

Steve actually had to take a few seconds to figure it out, and Bucky allowed him that without pressure. Waited and watched and gave him the time, but he didn't back away at all. That more than anything helped answer the question. "I want you. Whatever you there is now, I want him back. Wasn't my choice to lose you the first time, I'm not going to be stupid enough to choose it now. I know what life without you is like, and I don't want it." He paused to let it all sink in. "So what do you want?"

Bucky had gone completely lax, face a well-practiced blank. Then all the masks came down, and for a moment, Steve let himself imagine different surroundings and forget the actual situation. He looked and felt like it was his friend smiling back at him. "I'm here. I got what I want."


	8. Seek And Discern

**This was actually an earlier draft of chapter four. A vastly different 'verse, I'm sure you can tell, but for some reason, I wrote this one, thought it wasn't finished, wrote the draft that ended up being posted, and then came back later to finish this one and realized it was done enough for a ficlet? Ach. I think I had put it off on account of wanting to write more in the 'verse, but I haven't the time to do so at the moment, so I'm going ahead and posting it. If I do write more, it will, of course, be linked back just as I did for chapter two's smutty one-shot sequel. **

**Chapter tags: mild language and jotunn!Tony.**

* * *

All of Asgard made to stop, stare, and cheer for another win by the mighty Thor. It was no new thing, but it was exactly what had Loki in an ill mood. If Mother hadn't insisted he attend, Loki would have been far happier buried in his studies, mastering skills could never hope to comprehend. Four hours and counting of being surrounded by celebration, and Loki still hadn't managed to make himself leave despite how staying made his chest burn and his stomach heavy. Disappointing Mother would cause him far greater pain though, so Loki endured.

With every fresh uproar of Thor's name and every retelling of tales starring Thor alone in a great feat of courage and strength, Loki endured the heat under his skin and the static in his mind cresting in great waves of nausea and restlessness. There wasn't a fitting word for the conflict of emotions, but it wasn't a verbal reaction to begin with. Purely visceral and Loki was intimately familiar with its every incarnation.

"What a charming display of humility."

The voice came from so close so suddenly that Loki startled to turn to it. He must have been too far into his head again to allow such a dwarf of a man to sneak up on him, and Loki seethed to see amusement in bright brown eyes and a slight upturning of the stranger's lips.

"Have you ever wanted to hate someone as much as you want to hate the king-to-be?"

"That's my brother you speak of. Choose your next words carefully." Loki warned, internally agreeing though he was and unable to express it. Another bastard trying to find weakness or faults in Loki, but he wouldn't have it.

"Just making conversation, young prince. If I truly hated Thor, I wouldn't bother exchanging words with you when a knife in him would do. 'Hate' has become such a casual utterance of late that it's lost meaning. I mean _real_ hate. Bone-deep hatred where killing them would be more of a relief than a hardship."

"You speak of betrayal then." Loki said evenly, paying closer attention to the man now. A head shorter than Loki, the stranger was taller than a dwarf on second observation, dark brown hair trimmed short and his beard well shaped, and there was hard-earned wisdom in the lines of his face and the way he held himself. Not so harmless as he first appeared then. Disconcerting as he was suspicious.

"Is it betrayal?" The man frowned with a theatrically thoughtful tilt of his head. "If you're following their example, then what? When does betrayal become revenge?"

"Who are you?" Against his will, Loki felt his voice grow louder, impatient as his anger was only received with an easy smile.

"My name? Far too long and revealing. How about you call me 'Tony' instead?"

"Farewell then, Tony." Loki started to summon the guards, but Tony raised his finger faster.

"Ah-ah! None of that now."

Loki recognized the surge of sound-dampening spell when it passed through and around him, and he was forced to revise his judgment of Tony yet again. To cast a spell that strong with so little effort and a single finger... Not Aesir then - he looked far too young for his level of skill. Nor Vanir or elves, for he didn't have the look of one, and dwarves did not cast as such either. That only left Jotunn. Fire-jotunn, ice-jotunn, Jotnar of the mountain ranges, it hardly mattered when none of their branches were allowed on Asgard without express permission. Size and physical attributes were nothing when trying to spot a race of shapeshifters.

"How in the Hel did you get here?"

"Heimdall is blinder than a human and just as easy to fool. You didn't think you were the only one to walk the old paths, did you, prince?"

"You're not welcome here, monster."

"Asgardians aren't welcome much of anywhere either. Yet here you are, rejoicing in another victory of subjugation. What a beauty privilege is."

"I don't need the Einherjar to make you regret coming here." Loki threatened, shifting to fully face the Jotunn mage. The difference in height alone should have been enough to intimidate, but Tony only looked more interested. Fearlessness was not a favorable trait to find in an opponent.

"I'm not here to hurt anyone," he assured with a show of holding his palms out as if proving himself weaponless was any consolation. "I'm here to talk. Nothing more."

Loki cut off any further words with a sharp scoff. "No one will listen to you here. Not the way you speak."

"You are." Tony grinned. "That's more than what I'd hoped for. Funny how they're not celebrating you for your invaluable services in the recent battle." A nod to the crowd. "You were there, weren't you?"

_Damn_. Of course this mind-reading beast would find Loki's innermost insecurities and rip them out into the open. _Filthy Jotnar_. "If you seek to turn me against them, you'll find your efforts wasted."

"I don't need to do anything of the sort. Dissent is already on your mind."

"Leave. _Now_."

"As you like, young prince." Tony gave a slight bow. "I only sought to be sure your eyes were open. You might be the Liesmith, but you're not terribly good at finding the lies around you, are you? Look closer. You might find a few interesting things."

"I'd rather kill you first."

"No need." He stepped back from Loki's advancing stride. "I'll save you the regret and take that option away. I hope our paths cross again someday." Tony sprinted away just as Loki reached for him, and as soon as the Jotunn had gotten out of Loki's view, he'd vanished and left Loki feeling fouler than ever.

"Some make themselves easy to hate." He hissed to no one, and found the will to leave the celebrations to those that felt the need for it.


End file.
